THE NORTH LONDON INDEPENDENT GIRLS

SCHOOLS CONSORTIUM

Group 1

YEAR 7
ENTRANCE EXAMINATION

ENGLISH

Friday 17 January 2014

Time allowed: 1 hour 15 minutes

First Name: .....................................................................................

Surname: .........................................................................................

READING SCALED (mark out

RAW SCORE READING of 50)
(out of 40)
WRITING (mark out
of 50)

TOTAL %

284006 The North London Independent Girls Schools Consortium

 INSTRUCTIONS

PLEASE ANSWER BOTH PARTS OF THE PAPER

Part A: Reading (45 minutes)

G Spend 10 minutes reading the passage on the insert and

the questions in this booklet.
G You may mark the passage by underlining words and
phrases.
G Do not write anything in your booklet during this time.
G You will be told when the 10 minutes are over.

Spend 35 minutes writing your answers

in this answer booklet

G You will be told when 45 minutes are up, but you may
start Part B when you are ready.

Part B: Writing (30 minutes)

G Spend 30 minutes writing on the lined paper provided.

G Put your first name and surname at the top of each page.
G If you have time, you may go back to Part A.

YOU MAY WRITE IN

EITHER INK OR PENCIL
You will be told when you have 5 minutes left.

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 PLEASE TURN THE PAGE TO READ
THE QUESTIONS

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PART A: READING

After you have spent 10 minutes reading the passage, spend about
35 minutes answering these questions.

The mark at the end of each question is an indication of how much

you should write for each answer.

1. (a) In what season is this passage set?

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(b) Give two pieces of information from lines 25 to support

your answer.

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2. What has happened to Eds nest?

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3. Re-read lines 614. In what ways does Ed make his nest
snug?

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4. Re-read lines 3845. Explain in your own words why

Mr DuPont feels regretful.

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284006 5 Please turn over the page

5. Using information from the whole passage, suggest reasons
why Ed has freed the horse from its stable (lines 6162).

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6. Re-read lines 6668. Why do you think he gives the horse to

Mr DuPont?

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7. There are several vivid descriptions in this passage. What do
the following phrases suggest to you?

G Black boughs of stark trees creaked in the wind (lines 34)

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G the sullen sky (lines 4445)

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G obliterating his shaggy outline in the dying afternoon

(lines 7475)

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284006 7 Please turn over the page

8. Why do you think Ed has chosen to live as he does? Give
several reasons.

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9. Re-read lines 6970. Why do you think that Mr DuPont gives
Ed the cigarettes? Answer as fully as you can.

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Total marks for Reading Paper: 40

Please turn over the page for PART B: WRITING

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 BLANK PAGE

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PART B: WRITING

INSTRUCTIONS:

Spend about 30 minutes on your writing.

Remember to leave time to check your work carefully.

Please write on the lined paper provided. Put your

first name and surname at the top of each page.

Tell the story of how Ed took the horse and the

problems he faced.
50 marks

Total marks for Writing Paper: 50

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 READING PASSAGE

Ed was homeless and cold to his bones.

The air and the ground stood at freezing point, and a heavy layer of
yellowish snow-cloud hung like a threat over the afternoon. Black boughs of
stark trees creaked in the wind, and the rutted fields lay bare and dark,
5 waiting.
Shambling down a narrow road, Ed was cold and hungry and filled with
an intense unfocused resentment. By this stage of the winter he liked to be
deep in a nest, sheltered in a hollow in the ground in the lee of a wooded hill,
roofed by a lavish thatch of criss-crossed branches and thick brown
10 cardboard, lying on a warm comfortable bed of dry dead leaves and
polythene sheeting and sacks. He liked to have his wood fire burning all day
near his threshold, with the ashes glowing red all night. He liked to live snug
through the frost and the snows and the driving rains, and kick the whole
thing to pieces when he moved on in the spring.
15 What he did not like was having someone else kick his nest in as they
had done on that morning. Three of them Mr DuPont, the man who owned
the land where he had settled, and two people from the local council, Mr
Frost, a hard-eyed middle-aged man, and Miss Roberts, a prim bossy woman
with a clipboard. Their loud voices, their stupid remarks, echoed and fed the
20 anger in his mind.
Ive told him every day for the past week that I want him off my land
This structure constitutes a permanent dwelling and as such requires
planning permission
In the town there is a hostel where vagrants can sleep in a dormitory on
25 a one-night basis
Mr Frost had begun pulling his branch-and-cardboard roof to pieces, and
the other two had joined in. Ed saw from their faces that his smell offended
them, and he saw from the finicky picking of their fingers that they didnt
like touching what he had touched. The slow burning anger had begun in his
30 mind then, but as he detested contact with other humans and never spoke if
he could avoid it, he had merely turned and walked away, shapeless in his
bundled clothes, shuffling in his too-big boots, bearded and resentful and
smelly.
He had walked six miles since then, slowly.
35 He needed food and somewhere to shelter from the coming snow. He
needed a nest, and fire. His rage against mankind deepened with every
leaden step.
* * * * * * *
Mr DuPont spent the afternoon regretting what hed done in the morning.
It was not a good day, he belatedly realised, for turning a man out of his
40 home, even if his home was a hole in the ground.

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 When theyd pulled the nest to pieces, the two council workers and
himself, he had found in the ruins a bag full of precious cigarette ends. He
wasnt an imaginative man, but it came to him that everything Ed had, his
home and his comforts, he had taken away. He had looked up at the sullen
45 sky, and shivered.
During the afternoon he walked lengthily round his land, half looking for
Ed, to quieten his own conscience; but it was almost with surprise that he
finally saw him walking towards him along one of his boundary roads.
Ed shambled slowly, and he was not alone. At his shoulder, as slowly
50 following, came a horse.
Ed stopped, and the horse also. Ed held out a horse cube on a grimy
palm, and the horse ate it.
Mr DuPont looked in puzzlement at the two of them, the filthy man and
the well-groomed horse in its tidy rug.
55 Where did you get that? said Mr DuPont, pointing.
Found it. In the road. Eds voice was hoarse from disuse, but the words
were clear. They were also not true.
Look, said Mr DuPont awkwardly, you can build that house of yours
again, if you like. Stay for a few days. Hows that?
60 Ed considered it but shook his head, knowing that he couldnt stay,
because of the horse. He had freed the horse from its stable and taken it with
him. They would call him a thief and arrest him. In his past he had run away
from schools, from childrens homes and then the army, and if he couldnt
face the walls of a hostel, still less could he face a prison cell. Cold and
65 hunger and freedom, yes. Warmth and food and a locked door, no.
He turned away, gesturing unmistakably to Mr DuPont to take the horse,
to put his hand on its head-collar and do what was right. Automatically,
almost, Mr DuPont did so.
Wait, he said, as Ed retreated. Look take these. He pulled from his
70 pocket a packet of cigarettes and held them out. Take them please.
Hesitating, Ed went back and accepted the gift, nodding his
acknowledgement of something given, something received. Then again he
turned away and set off down the road, and the long-threatened snow began
to fall in big single floating flakes, obliterating his shaggy outline in the
75 dying afternoon.

Text adapted from a work by Dick Francis .

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